Music review: Happy New Year's music is trendy and young at heart

The album has 8 originals, and one instrumental, remix and a medley each. At a total run time of 42 minutes 19 seconds, it is lengthy by any standard, but then we are talking about Hindi films which prefer melodrama over anything else.

Bollywood's music directors have carved a niche for themselves in the industry over the years, and are by no means any less than anyone else on the sets or the studio. Yes, the directors may still call all the shots, but the lines are blurring fast. Unlike the informal way music directors were chosen earlier, today they are expected to carry forward the trend of their earlier hits. In a way, they are chosen because of their expertise in a certain kind of music.

Little wonder then that Farah Khan chose Vishal-Shekhar to compose the music for Shahrukh Khan's Happy New Year, which was released yesterday, because of their command over techno beats.

The album has 8 originals, and one instrumental, remix and a medley each. At a total run time of 42 minutes 19 seconds, it is lengthy by any standard, but then we are talking about Hindi films which prefer melodrama over anything else.

Also, Happy New Year is expected to be a heist film weaved around a dance competition. Going by Farah Khan's track record, a choreographer-turned-director, she wouldn’t let go of any opportunity to make it a grand affair, and dance-inspiring-music is likely to be her weapon in this game.

The first song of the album is Indiawaale (Vishal Dadlani, KK, Shankar Mahadevan, Neeti Mohan) is a high energy number with foot tapping beats. It’s moderately pitched and carries the flavour of Bollywood-ised patriotism. It’s the showcase number and is also heavily used in the promos, thus it had to be a song with relatively easy lyrics.

Indiawaale is followed by Manwa Laage, a soothing number. It’s sung by the hit pair of Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal. Lyricist Irshad Kamil’s impression is clearly visible in Manwa Laage. Consider these lines, “Kisi ka toh hoga hi tu, kyun na tujhe main hi jeetun, Khule khabon me jeete hain, jeete hain baawre.” Simple yet soulful. However, this is probably the only such song in the entire album.

Listen: Happy New Year jukebox

Next in line is Satkali (Sukhwinder Singh). The opening of Satkali sounds like Dekha jo tujhe yaar (Apna Sapna Money Money), at least to me. In sync with traditional Marathi Govinda songs, this gives the feeling of streets and roughness of the situation. But, there is hardly anything to notice about this song.

Lovely (Kanika Kapoor, Ravindra Upadhyay, Miraya Varma, Fateh) is a pure dance number which has been made with DJ gatherings in mind. Kanika Kapoor’s voice will fetch your attention, but once again it doesn’t seem to last long in our memories.

May be it’s because of Sunidhi’s voice, but Dance Like Chammiya (Sunidhi Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani) appears to be the rehash of Vishal-Shekhar’s own song Chaliya. It also lacks novelty.

Is it just me or everybody felt that Sharabi (Manj Musik, Nindy Kaur, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani) is extremely similar to Lak 28 Kudi Da? Another regular number.

Kamlee is another version of Sharabi, but is more enjoyable. The reason behind it is simple. The rap is placed perfectly. This one is going to pull you to the dance floor.

There is one song which is completely banking on its singer’s quality and understanding of the trend. Yes, I am talking about Mika Singh’s Nonsense Ki Night. It’s a sure-shot hit. It’s ‘desi’ in nature and going to be a favourite with local DJs.

Farah Khan looks more concerned about the feel of her film than the quality of the songs, and it prompts her to go with trendy tunes. Overall, the album is average and is only youth oriented. Acquiring longevity will be difficult for this album.